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“SONGS OF THE HUMPBACK WHALE is a timeless classic of the earth’s music. It deserves a place in our cultural pantheon, alongside the music of Bach, Stavinsky, and Ellington.” — Paul Winter

This is the re-mastered reissue of the long out-of-print original album of Humpback Whale songs that have touched the hearts of millions of people around the world and arguably has done more towards saving whales than other efforts put together.These rare recordings are from a ‘Bel Canto’ era of whale singing. Even though Humpbacks change their songs every year, none from recent years has been so beautiful as these they sang in the 1960′s.

Dr. Roger Payne is the whale biologist famous for the discovery, along with Scott McVay, that male Humpback Whales sing. These songs can last up to thirty minutes and contain up nine themes strung together, so that a long singing session is an exuberant, uninterrupted river of sound.

“When I think of what grand arias, cantatas, and recitatives have filled the sea, echoing through its vast vaults, only to diappear and be lost forever, I am keenly grateful for those included here, made by sound-pioneer Frank Watlington, who captured what I consider to be the greatest of all humpback whale performances, ‘Solo Whale’. It was recorded at a depth of 1500 feet using an extraordinary array of deep-water microphones that were part of a cold-water experiment by the US Navy, costing tens of millions of dollars, and now claimed by the sea. That project will never be repeated. And such songs may never be heard again.” – Dr. Roger Payne

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released September 3, 2016

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Paul WinterLitchfield

Paul Winter is a seven-time Grammy-winning saxophonist, whose sextet was the first jazz group to perform at the White House
in 1962. His second group, the Paul Winter Consort, interweaves sounds from the natural world with classical and ethnic traditions, and the spontaneous spirit of jazz. Their annual Winter Solstice Celebrations and Earth Mass are among the most popular events in New York....more